In the past 24 hours, the automotive industry has experienced some of the most extreme cervical lashes in the Trump administration saga, ending Wednesday evening with two contradictory policy proposals out of the White House: China could be granted exemptions on automotive automotive rates, but the prices of the car in Canada could increase.
Last night, the Wall Street Journal Trump reported that Trump was planning to reduce his 145% prices on China, reducing some of them potentially 50% – a report that could have provided shaken investors. This seemed particularly credible since Trump himself referred to decreases during a press event earlier in the day, saying: “145% is too high. It will drop considerably.” However, the secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent, denied the WSJ report the next morning, saying that the United States not Unilaterally lower rates. “This is the equivalent of an embargo, and a break between the two countries of trade is not suitable for anyone’s interests,” he told journalists.
In a few hours, however, the Financial time Trump reported that Trump was planning to eliminate his recently imposed prices on steel, aluminum and automobile parts imported from China, and the White House confirmed to CNBC shortly after certain unilateral exemptions were indeed under study. Although it is not a complete reversal – a price of 25% on cars manufactured abroad and a price of 25% on all imported cars are always intact – it would have offered a certain relief to car manufacturers, which should have faced the possibility of absorbing the cost of several prices stacked on each other.
Alas, no more confusion ensued. Shortly after FT The report has been published and the automotive actions started to tend to start the news, Trump told oval journalists that Canada – and not China – could see automobile rates increase more. “They took a large percentage of the car, and I want to bring it back to this country,” he said. “I really don’t want Canada cars. So when I put prices on Canada – they pay 25%, but that could increase in terms of cars – when we put prices, everything we do is say: “We do not want your cars, in all respect, we really want to make our own cars”, which is what we do in record number. ”
The chaotic clutter on car rates is the last incidence of the Trump administration which has fallen as they price, which they price and how these prices are. But even if the new exemptions proposed are “bare” from current prices, because the managers characterized it at the Financial time, The rates for their existing form threaten to devastate the American automotive industry. In a letter sent to the administration on Tuesday, a coalition of powerful actors in the American automotive industry cited a research report on the center of automotive research which estimated that an automotive rate of 25% would increase industry costs up to $ 107 billion.
“Automobile parts will scramble the global automotive supply chain and trigger a domino effect that will cause higher automobile prices for consumers, a drop in sales among dealers and make the maintenance and repair of vehicles that are both more expensive and less predictable,” the coalition wrote.
